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Tevo Howard Live Mix MP3

Tevo Howard's new live mix for Resident Advisor hour-long epic of breathy synth strings and thumping TB-303 acid bass is an emotional house soundtrack that could inject spraying butter substitute on an english muffin with an air of romance. Howard takes what's classic about classic Chicago house and lightly subverts it—a classic swing piano hook is lifted up off the dance floor by ethereal violins and then grounded again by intermittent pizzicato bumps. A driving half-note clap erupts, not clearly at the forefront of the soundscape, but from some dark reverby corner of the sonic architecture. Various other instrumental components are withdrawn and then re-inserted, creating a suspension in time and space that defies the usual progression of what we think of as a mix. This is not uncommon for live acts, in which artists often ride on various instrumentals for as long as they can, tweaking them slightly with cutoff and effects until one loop becomes so unbearably monotonous that they are forced to move on to the next trick in their bag. In this case, however, Howard's reoccurring motifs generate a calming sense of continuity that makes his hour long saga more of a wicked long track than a mix.